With our upcoming move to have no home and travel for awhile, we are in the throes of the last efforts to get rid of stuff we no longer need, and we are packing things we are keeping. With each item that leaves it is much easier to decide what goes and what is packed, and with each item that leaves we feel lighter and know we are headed in the right direction. We make almost daily trips to our 10 x 15-foot heated storage unit. Weekly we drop off car loads of stuff to our local charities, and send piles of garbage with our very helpful garbage guy and recycle guy. Our scanner and paper shredder are working overtime. If the weather is good, the priorities are outside in the yard; if it is raining, the priorities are inside. Setting daily priorities is the only way to stay sane and work together.
In the morning we discuss what we would like to accomplish for the day, we handle business matters and squeeze in a workout before we get on with packing, sorting, and hauling. As the day progresses we make adjustments to priorities as necessary. Come evening, we wrap up between 4 and 5 p.m. and before we go to bed we discuss how the next few days may play out. By morning, that can all change. We have fallen into a new daily routine crammed with priorities that would test anyone’s patience and ability to be flexible.
What’s important is knowing we can reprioritize and lay out the next few minutes or the rest of the day as necessary. By adjusting and going with the flow we get an amazing amount of priorities taken care of on any given day. And when all is said and done, we will have a lot less stuff, fewer priorities, and can pack patience and flexibility with us when we head out on the next chapter of our lives.
So how do we determine our priorities when everything is a priority? We talk about it and work as a team. After all, we’re going to be spending a lot of time together in the days ahead and being able to discuss things with patience and flexibility in mind will see us through-and a dash of humor wouldn’t hurt either!
